🔗 Share this article

Considering he who's forfeited almost 40 years of his life because of a crime he didn't commit, Peter Sullivan projects a unusually positive outlook.

When I met him last month, for what was his first interview since being freed from prison in May, he was cheerful and excited about getting to Anfield to watch Liverpool play for the first time since he was detained in 1986.

That was the year of the brutal homicide of Diane Sindall in his home town of Birkenhead - an incident he said he only knew about because someone turned to him in a pub at the time and said, "apparently there's been a murder".

When he was convicted the following year at Liverpool Crown Court - he was sentenced to a extended term in some of Britain's toughest category A prisons where he would be hounded by his tabloid nicknames "The Beast of Birkenhead", "The Mersey Ripper" and "The Wolfman".

Adapting to a Transformed World

Before our interview, he was full of stories about how since his freedom he has had to adapt to a fundamentally altered world.

When he was arrested, Margaret Thatcher was in Downing Street, no one had heard of the internet and Europe was still divided by the Iron Curtain.

He described watching the collapse of the Berlin Wall from a shared television in prison.

Mr Sullivan described how trips to the shops now show how "the world has transformed" - from trying to work out how self-checkouts function to realising that "rather than having a cheque book, you've got it on your phone".

Digital Surprises

His imprisonment means he has been oblivious to the way so many elements of everyday life have evolved - almost like someone who has been asleep since the 1980s.

"Having endured so long in prison and finding out there's no DHSS [Department of Health and Social Security, now the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)] where you can collect your money - you're thinking, 'Wow, what's going on here?'"

He now has a smartphone, after finding out doctor's appointments need to be booked on something he now knows is called an 'mobile program'.

He first became familiar with them when he was riding on a bus shortly after his freedom and saw people operating smartphones. He only understood they were phones when he saw someone put one to their ear.

Mental Consequences

Mr Sullivan's 14,000 days in prison have also led to an predictable sense of institutionalisation.

He remembered how after his liberation, one morning in his flat he went back to his bedroom and settled on his bed, because he was unconsciously waiting for a prison officer to come and confine him into his cell.

"It's required to be at your door at a certain time, otherwise the officers will discipline you", he said.

"I found myself thinking, 'What's happening?'"

Seeking Answers

But Mr Sullivan's optimism is mixed with a yearning for answers about how he was charged with an high-profile murder that he was innocent of, and a confusion about why he still has not had an apology.

"My entire life vanished", he said.

"My liberty was taken, I lost my mother since I've been in prison, I've lost my father.

"It pains me because I wasn't there for them", he said.

"It's impossible to continue with my life if I can't get an answer off them."

"The sole thing I need, an apology [and to understand] the explanation for they've done this to me", he said.

Law Enforcement Statement

Merseyside Police said "there would be little benefit to be gained for a re-examination of this matter today" because of "the changes to investigative techniques and improvements in the law over the last 40 years".

The force did submit some of Mr Sullivan's allegations to the police regulatory agency, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), who will now examine his claims that officers physically abused him and threatened to link him to other crimes if he failed to confess to Diane Sindall's murder.

When asked if it would issue an apology, the force did not clearly address the question, but as part of a comprehensive declaration it said: "The force regrets that there has been a grave miscarriage of justice in this case".

Future Prospects

Mr Sullivan explained about his basic aspiration - an ambition that he said he had given up of being able to realise at some points over his almost forty years behind bars.

"All I want to do now is continue with my own life and move forward as I was before, and experience freedom now".

His life ahead may be made easier by government financial payment, paid to wrongly convicted people of judicial errors.

This program is capped at £1.3m, a limit which it is estimated his resulting award will get very near.

But the procedure is not immediate, and it is time-consuming.

Andrew Malkinson, whose sentence for a rape he did not commit was dismissed in 2023, was only given an temporary payment earlier this year.

Guilty prisoners who admit to their crimes and are freed get a place to live and some support regarding living expenses. Mr Sullivan, as an innocent man, is not qualified for that help.

And so he is existing a modest life, with his modest ambitions - although many think he is a compensation recipient.

His legal representative, Sarah Myatt, said "no sum that you could say that would be sufficient for losing 38 years of your life".